NY Budget Hits Saranac Lake School District

Governor Patterson's proposed NY state budget appears to be hitting the Saranac Lake school district very hard. The governor's proposal would result in a decrease in State aid of almost one million dollars to the Saranac Lake school district.

"Like our Superintendent Gerry Goldman said, this amount of money is not going to be made up by curtailing field trips and turning off the lights," Kilroy said.

This is exactly right. Unfortunately, the hit could have been lessened if the school board had insisted on a higher health insurance contribution in the recently approved teachers contract.

In a concession to the district, employees' contributions toward their health plans have increased. A single plan will rise from $150 a year to $375. A family plan will increase from $250 to $750.

There is a concession for you....contributing 35-42 dollars a month for health insurance. That's a contribution of about 6-8% tops. Most employees I'm aware of are contributing far more than 15-20% for their healthcare. What if the employees has been asked to contribute 15-20%? How much savings would the District and taxpayers have seen then?

Yes, the hit from the State is a big one. Maybe even an unfair one. But demanding a larger contribution from district employees for their healthcare would lessened the hit dramatically.

Merry Christmas, Baby

Rove Advice to Obama

Advice to President-elect Obama from the turd blossom:

Less obvious is how to create a White House where forceful debate can take place. Plain speaking, straight talk, and dissent must be encouraged, with participants thoroughly prepared, ideas offered with deference for opposing views, and colleagues not subjected to self-serving leaks.

Too bad he didn't give the same advice to the current President.

Something GW Bush is Good At?

Dodging shoes! That was an excellent dodge - both times. I'm a bit surprised how long it took the secret service to react.

GOP - Party of Herbert Hoover

Looks like any auto bailout deal is dead thanks to three idealist republican senators: Corker, Shelby, and DeMint. These three guys wanted pay cuts for unionized auto workers to take place next year rather than in 2011 when their contract expires.

Featherbrain Jim DeMint has actually predicted "more" riots if an auto bailout deal is passed.

“We’re going to have riots. There are already people rioting because they’re losing their jobs when everybody else is being bailed out. The fairness of it becomes more and more evident as we go along. The auto companies may be hurting,” he said, but “there are very few companies that aren’t hurting and they’re going to hurt. We don’t have enough money to bail everyone out.”

I keep a pretty close eye on the news, but I must have missed those riots that have already occurred. By DeMint's logic, the more people that lose their jobs, the less likely it is that they will riot because they unfairly lost their job. That sums up republican logic.

So we can look forward to a huge downturn in the stock markets today thanks to three guys who think believe cutting wages is the answer to saving our economy. It's a mystery why the rest of the republican congress went along with this madness - even G.W. Bush was in favor of this bailout. Dick Cheny, for gods sake, said "if we don't do this we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever".

So, if we take the leaders of GM and Chrysler at their word, in a few weeks tens of thousands of auto workers and people who work for auto supply companies will be out of work. This should be great for the economy. But then again, republicans will have taught union members something about personal responsibility. I guess this is one way of busting unions and helping cut costs for big business.

It appears that only big finance companies and banks are worthy of being saved. Looks like Bush will need to use some of that $700 billion to save US automakers.

Illinois Scandal Will "Dog" Obama

Here is our liberal press:

President-elect Barack Obama hasn't even stepped into office and already a scandal — not of his own making — is threatening to dog him.

Obama isn't accused of anything. But the fact that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a fellow Democrat, has been charged with trying to sell Obama's now-vacant Senate post gives political opponents an opening to criticize him. A slew of questions remain. The investigation is still under way. And the ultimate impact on Obama is far from certain.

Yep, Obama isn't accused of anything. US Attorney Fitzgerald has stated as much. But our liberal press, who is in the pocket of Obama is going to dog Obama about the Blagojevich scandal. Afterall, Obama is from Illinois, so he must be in on the senate-seat selling scandal.

We can all hope that more of the liberal media goes bankrupt in the coming months.

Good-Bye George

We are only 12 hours away from only 40 days and 40 nights of the G.W. Bush presidency.

Tuesday's Big News - Almost

The big news yesterday, before Gov. Blog was arrested, was the report of the success of a new malaria vaccine.

The studies, published online Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine, were reported at a New Orleans meeting of tropical medicine researchers and were hailed as a significant breakthroughin the fight against one of the most intractable and deadly infectious diseases.

The paper, if you are interested in reading the actual results, is here.

Let's look at the headline of this report in FP Passport. The headline claims "New malaria vaccine more than 50 percent effective". Ok, so what does "effective" mean? Most vaccines that we get provide what is often called sterile immunity. They prevent occurence of a disease. For example, get vaccinated against the polio or measles virus and you most likely will never become infected with polio or measles.

This malaria vaccine does not provide sterile immunity. It is best described as an anti-disease vaccine. You still become infected, but with fewer parasite-infected red blood cells. This means you might suffer less severe symptoms of malaria. Also, a lower parasite burden may allow for a more effective immune response against the remaining parasites.

So why doesn't the new vaccine (it was actually designed in the late 1980's) provide sterile immunity? It's because of the malaria parasite's life cycle.



Parasites injected into the bloodstream of a host (you) rapidly penetrate liver cells - they become intracellular. The vaccine, RTS, S (with an adjuvant), specifically targets the mosquito-injected stage of the parasite called a sporozoite. The sporozoite is free in the blood for just minutes before they penetrate liver cells. So two types of immunity are necessary. Antibodies can bind to the sporozoites while they are free in the blood and prevent them from penetrating the liver. If no sporozoites reach the liver - you have no malaria and thus sterile immunity. The RTS, S vaccine obviously does not prevent sporozoites from penetrating the liver because vaccinated individuals.

Once the liver cells become infected, a type of immunity called "cell-mediated" immunity is required. Especially needed is a type of T lymphocyte that can kill parasite-infected cells - a CD8+ cytotoxic cell.



A single liver cell infected with a single malaria sporozoite results in hundreds to thousands of merozoite stages that burst out of the liver cell and infect red blood cells.



The RTS, S vaccine induces no immunity to these blood cell stages.

The paper actually reports that "clinical malaria" developed in 32 of 402 RTS, S vaccinated children compared with 66 of 407 children that did not receive the RTS, S vaccine. This is nothing to sneeze at. But how do the researchers define "clinical malaria"?

The primary end point was a clinical episode of malaria, defined as an axillary temperature of 37.5 (degrees C) or higher with a Plasmodium falciparum density or more than 2500 parasites per microliter. The presence of any faciparum parasitemia density with a temperature of 37.5 (degrees C) was a secondary end point.

50% effective means that about half of the vaccinated children did not show signs of a researcher defined "clinical malaria"

This is good for the children that were protected from a more severe case of malaria. This vaccine is likely to save the lives of many children. However, it's unlikely to have any significant effect on reducing the levels of malaria worldwide.

Right-Wing Bloviaters

The above video shows a bullying coward and a traitor bloviating about how the economy really isn't in too much difficulty. The liberal media is just making you think the economy is bad. Why would the liberal media do this? Well, it's to make Barack Obama look good. Are there words to describe these two disgusting creatures?

I don't think so

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

This surprised even me. Thanks Sara

$110,000 on Hair and Makeup?

You better look pretty damn good if you have professionals doing your hair and makeup to the tune of $110,000 over two months. Now how much was that John Edwards haircut?

Why Bother Impeaching Obama?

Ok, here is a good one from the wing-nut-o-sphere. Let's not go to the trouble of impeaching Obama,that takes too much time. Let's just declare him not a citizen of the USA before the inauguration day. Naturally, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is willing to go along with these nuts.

Justice Clarence Thomas distributed to his colleagues a request that the high court weigh in before the Electoral College makes Obama’s victory official later this month. The justices may decide in a Friday conference whether to hear or cast away a lawsuit dismissed in a lower court and appealed by a retired New Jersey lawyer named Leo C. Donofrio, who also has his own Web site.

Go to PeoplesPassion.org, the voice of the people (it's all about Faith, Family and Country) and listen to their pleas. They want proof Barack Obama is a citizen of the USA. Yep, Obama's birth certificate is a fraud. How his family managed to get his birth announcement published in a Honolulu newspaper 47 years ago should also be investigated. See, they Obama's family knew that someday he would run for the Presidency of the USA. This is all a huge, really well thought out conspiracy.

PS Is Michelle Malkin a US citizen? Are you only a citizen if your father was a citizen? Stay tuned - this topic isn't going away.

I have a different explanation. These wing-nuts have never heard of William of Ockham. They are the same group that think we never landed on the moon. They see black helicopters and know in their hearts that the UN wants to rule the world. In other words, they haven't the foggiest idea how to think.

Neo-Hooverites = Republicans?

What do Republicans need to do to regain their former role as leaders of the free market economy, flag, god and country? You can make the case that they need to make sure President-elect Obama and the Democratic Congress fail to solve any of our country's problems. They do this simply by continuing to do what they've done over the last two years. Obstruct. So what if we have to suffer through a depression. So what if we all have to suffer so Republicans can win in 2 or 4 years. We need to be taught a good lesson - forget that the sacrifice Bush wanted us to make was to go out and spend.

Reagan spent us into huge deficits which Clinton had to fix. Now Bush has done the same thing with his war against a tactic (terror) and now Republicans are calling on Democrats to be fiscally responsible.

Who ever would have thought that the Republican government could succeed in bringing down the US economy in only 8 years?

And The Winner Is? (foot and mouth disease)

Yea for Kansas. Looks like they are the lucky winners to be the home of the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Lab.

The federal government is recommending a site in Kansas over sites in North Carolina and elsewhere for a new $450 million laboratory to study biological threats such as anthrax and contagious animal diseases, a Kansas senator's office said Wednesday.

This new lab is to replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Lab, off Long Island, in New York State. Seems like a great idea to me to start studying very contagious animal diseases like foot and mouth disease and anthrax in the middle of the continental USA rather than out on an island. Even stranger, according to the Department of Homeland Security, Congressional law stipulates live foot-and-mouth disease virus cannot be studied on the mainland USA.

Why are they replacing the Plum Island facility? Well, it's too old. That begs the question of why they can't modernize it.

Unreasonable Faith

Good blog, Unreasonable Faith, written by "a former christian" with thoughts on "faith, science and skepticism". But what is really interesting is the journey through the dark parts of the bible, the contents so far include two posts. The introduction can be found here.

I’m going to show you that side by looking at some of the stories from a different perspective. As we will see, Yahweh is not just the God of love and justice, but a God full of wrath and jealousy, who delights in acts that most of us — without the blinders of faith — would consider the height of evil.

The second post, "Genesis 3: God screws up the world, blames man" is here.

Christians believe that God created the world and is in control of it, so they must find a scapegoat for all this evil that goes on. They can’t believe their God could have intended all this to happen. So they have the story of the forbidden fruit and Satan, the rebellious angel. Yet is the Bible’s answer really satisfying? As I have argued, it would make God responsible for this mess.

Happy December

After problems with our water system, going without water for 4 days - replacing a well pump (although I'm not sure it was needed)and a quick 2 day trip to Boston to visit my wonderful daughter (and eat lots of food)- I'm back at the grindstone for another 3 weeks or so before Christmas break.

We didn't do much more than eat while in Boston and meet several of my daughters friends. We did visit Dorchester Heights, where the American rebels chased the British out of Boston. We also visited Mike's Pastry in the North End and ate cannoli. You can order online from Mike's Pastry which is far easier than budging your way in through the crowds. We had ribs at Redbones BBQ and shawarma in a Jewish middle Eastern takeout in Allston (near to Coolidge corners).

We stayed at the Best Western Terrace Inn in Allston, near the BC campus. It's cheap, clean, right on the green T line, has free parking and is only a mile from my daughters apartment.

Naturally, we had to visit Harvard Square and spend some time at the Coop. We also spent 3 hours at the movies watching "Australia". Not a bad movie but could use a little more action in my opinion. I didn't know that Darwin was attacked by the Japanese during WWII (multiple times, but the movie shows the first, and most deadly attack).

Also visited my daughters school, the Quincy E. Dickerman Elementary School.

Got around mostly using the T, which was fun and convenient. Got to hear an older Chinese gentleman playing an erhu in the government center station. Weird sounding to the Western ear.

Are You Civically Literate?

Ok, check out this Civics quiz. I missed 4 questions for a score of 87.88. Two of them kind of business type questions. Average score for this quiz in November was 78.1. Take it and let me know how you did. It's sad that the vast majority of people who take this quiz (71%) cannot pass it.

Indefinite Detention?

The wingers are super concerned that their guns are going to be taken away over the coming years. Nevermind that it would be impossible due to the number of guns currently in the USA. But these same wingers don't seem to be concerned that G.W. Bush has mandated that legal residents of the USA can be imprisoned indefinitely if he deems they are enemy terrorists. Maybe the wingers figure as long as they have their guns, no one is going to take them away.

Anyone who has actually read the US Constitution can see that detaining someone indefinitely, incommunicado, and torturing them is unconstitutional. An editorial in todays NYT points out that a legal resident of the USA, Ali al-Marri, has been held and tortured for the last seven years.

Mr. Marri was arrested in Peoria, Ill., in December 2001 on criminal charges. In 2003, while his criminal case was pending, Mr. Bush designated him an enemy combatant, and he was moved to a Navy brig near Charleston, S.C. For 16 months, Mr. Marri was held incommunicado. During his detention, he reportedly has been subjected to treatment that borders on, or actually is, torture.

Yes, I understand that Mr. Marri has a funny middle eastern name so he is probably a terrorist and not a Christian. Think this matter doesn't concern you? Think again.

The federal appeals court made clear that its ruling upholding the president’s power to detain enemy combatants applies equally to American citizens. If the ruling stands, presidents would be able to throw out due process, habeas corpus and other basic constitutional and statutory rights for anyone they declared to have terrorist ties.

Just be thankful you don't have a middle eastern name....or do you?

HMMWV Zeus Laser

It's not quite a handheld raygun but it pretty much is the closest thing we have right now. The Economist reports on a laser mounted on a Humvee being used to destroy IED's in Iraq from a distance of 300 meters.

Wikipedia has more on the ZEUS-HLONS.

Conservatives See No Problems

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones has a pretty good post about conservative's inability to admit a problem exists. That's why they lack ideas about how to fix problems - they don't see or can't admit a problem exists to begin with.

Take global warming. Here's the rough conservative reaction to it starting in the early 90s:

1. It doesn't exist.

2. It exists but it isn't manmade.

3. It's manmade, but it's too expensive to do anything about.

Even this is a generous assessment. A lot of conservatives are still stuck at #2, and sizeable chunk at #1. What this means is that they're basically shut out of the conversation entirely. Which is too bad, because I'd actually be sort of interested to hear a conservative take on how to address global warming that accepts both its reality and the necessity of doing something about it.

But maybe this isn't right. Maybe it's just that these people who claim to be conservative are no longer true conservatives. I seem to remember a time when conservatives had solutions to problems besides "cut taxes".